Joe by H.D. Gordon Read Free Book Online

you, Claire-Bear,” Mary
said, coming forward to embrace her younger daughter.
    Claire hugged her mother back, but she
looked up at her sister sitting on the couch. It was only a flash, but Nikki
could see the panic in her little sister’s eyes.
    Mary continued to hug her daughter.
“Everything we’ve planned for is falling right into place. It’s been a lot of
work, but it’s all so worth it. We’re just so proud.”
    Her heart contracted in her chest as another
small weight was placed on her already overburdened shoulders, but Claire began
to giggle. Behind their mother’s back Nikki had been mouthing the words that
Mary was saying, and now she was holding up three fingers, counting the times
their mother used the word “proud” before she left.
    Mary finally released her daughter. She
took a step back. “What’s funny?” she asked.
    Claire smiled sweetly, the fake smile
that she had given so many times in her life. “Nothing. Just very excited,
Mom.”
    “We’re so proud,” Mary repeated.
    Nikki stood up from the couch, the thumb
of her right hand tucked behind the other four fingers, which were wiggling at
her side. Claire stifled another giggle, but also felt warm tears building
behind her eyes. She couldn’t cry in front of her mother. She couldn’t let on
how weak she really was.
    “Well, while this has been a proud and
wonderful moment, Claire has class in a little bit, so you’d better get going.
It was so nice to see you, Mother,” Nikki said, ushering Mary toward the door.
She opened it and Mary stepped out, looking only mildly insulted.
    “You quit that smoking around your
sister,” Mary said. “We can’t have you infecting her with lung cancer. She has
a bright future.”
    Nikki smiled. “Yes, yes, thank you for
the concern.” She started shutting the door. “I’ll try not to get infected as
well, thank you.” The door clicked into place. Nikki turned toward Claire.
“Now, that e-mail. I’ll write it, you go change into something that will make
me ‘proud’ to be next to you.”
    Claire laughed, but inside her stomach
was roiling. “You’re such an asswipe,” she said.
    “So they tell me.”
    “What are you going to say?” Claire
asked.
    “To what? The teacher? Oh, I’ll come up
with something.”
    It doesn’t matter anymore , Claire thought. I can skip because
it doesn’t matter anymore.
    She wasn’t completely resolved yet, but
things just kept piling up, and now, this internship. Come Monday, after one
last day of classes, Claire had decided she would take her own life.

Chapter
Eight
    Merion
    Professor Gellar,
    I will be unable to attend the 2:30
Philosophy class scheduled this afternoon. I have a stomach flu that has left
me bedridden. I will be present on the following Tuesday for the exam,
providing that I am able. Thank you for your understanding.
    Claire Hoffken
    Merion stared at the words on her
computer screen, and then snapped the laptop closed without properly shutting
it down. If she had a dollar for every time she’d read those words she would be
happily retired by now, but the words only dealt out headaches.
    She was just so tired of it all,
and ready to be done. As far as she was concerned, she’d paid her dues to
society. She’d spent all her youth, the good days, when her back didn’t hurt
and her hair hadn’t paled, doing her honest work as a citizen. And she was
done. So done.
    Now that the end of her working days
were drawing near, her retirement only six weeks away, she found she had less
and less patience for the occurrences of her daily routine. She was sick of the
politics of the workplace, the students’ never-ending, recycling bag of
excuses, the co-workers she never really liked but had learned to tolerate, and
Head Dean Craig Kraucker. She definitely wouldn’t miss him.
    And no, it wasn’t all bad. The last
thirty years of her time spent at UMMS had not all been bad. She’d met some
really great people, some really smart people,